The Delhi High Court recently rejected PepsiCo’s appeal against an order that had revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for the New York-based company’s popular Lay’s potato chips. 

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) Authority in 2021 had revoked intellectual protection granted to PepsiCo’s FC5 potato variety, saying that India’s rules do not allow a patent on seed varieties. 

The authority had removed PepsiCo’s patent cover after Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers’ rights activist, had argued that the company could not claim a patent over a seed variety. 

PepsiCo had petitioned the Delhi High Court against the revocation of the patent cover. 

In its order dated July 5, Delhi High Court judge Navin Chawla dismissed PepsiCo’s appeal against the authority’s decision. 

“We are aware of the order ... and are in the process of reviewing the same,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson said in a statement. 

The US snacks- and drinks-maker, which had set up its first potato chip plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 seed variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price. 

PepsiCo has maintained that it exclusively developed the FC5 variety and registered the trait in 2016. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips. 

In a statement, Ms Kuruganti said: “It is good that the judgement of Justice Navin Chawla upheld the revocation order....” 

In 2019, PepsiCo had sued some Indian farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, accusing growers of infringing its patent. The company had also sought more than Rs 1 crore each for the alleged patent infringement. 

Within months, PepsiCo had withdrawn lawsuits against farmers. 

In its order, the Delhi High Court did not uphold accusations of any public interest violation by PepsiCo. 

PepsiCo is the second large US company to face patent infringement issues in India. 

After a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed-maker Monsanto, now owned by German drugmaker Bayer, had withdrawn from some businesses in India.